T5 par levels before break in? seeing higher par then expected

[ChrisNH]

I just bought an sq-420 and the par readings are higher then i expected for my aquatic life fixture. my bulb are relatively new, they have run for maybe 40-50 hours. To what degree does par output decrease in the first 100 hours?

I am seeing around 190-200 par at 12” deep with the lights at 8” over the water in some spots. its a 40B with the lights in a 16” bracket so i dont have an apples to apples par comparison, but it seems high. Higher even than a 4 bulb ati fixture.

 

[Albertan22]

That seems about right to me. I PAR tested my 48” aquatic life fixture after it had been running a few months and got around 160-200 par with just the T5s and mid 300s to high 400s with my Kessils running.

 

[ChrisNH]

That seems about right to me. I PAR tested my 48” aquatic life fixture after it had been running a few months and got around 160-200 par with just the T5s and mid 300s to high 400s with my Kessils running.

interesting. i was expecting more in the low 100s from brs testing, maybe a little higher if it performed more like the ati 4 bulb with the 16” bracker.

 

[Albertan22]

Yeah I remember expecting lower too. You could always raise the lights a bit if you want lower values but then you get more light spill into the room. I found 8 inches to be the sweet spot for my setup.

 

[Dana Riddle]

I just bought an sq-420 and the par readings are higher then i expected for my aquatic life fixture. my bulb are relatively new, they have run for maybe 40-50 hours. To what degree does par output decrease in the first 100 hours?

I am seeing around 190-200 par at 12” deep with the lights at 8” over the water in some spots. its a 40B with the lights in a 16” bracket so i dont have an apples to apples par comparison, but it seems high. Higher even than a 4 bulb ati fixture.

Your measurements sound ballpark. Use the 'electric light' setting in the software and also correct for the immersion effect (1.08.) You likely have done this - just checking.

 

[ChrisNH]

Your measurements sound ballpark. Use the 'electric light' setting in the software and also correct for the immersion effect (1.08.) You likely have done this - just checking.

I did double check that, they are set that way, thanks!

 

[SeaJay]

I just bought an sq-420 and the par readings are higher then i expected for my aquatic life fixture. my bulb are relatively new, they have run for maybe 40-50 hours. To what degree does par output decrease in the first 100 hours?

I am seeing around 190-200 par at 12” deep with the lights at 8” over the water in some spots. its a 40B with the lights in a 16” bracket so i dont have an apples to apples par comparison, but it seems high. Higher even than a 4 bulb ati fixture.

I just bought the SQ420 as well and I'm with you. I don't even have all my lights up(no leds running in my aquatic life hybrid at the moment) because I'm building a new canopy and addressing cable management, and levels are higher than I expected. My lights are 16" off the surface and I was going to lower them. Looks like based on the data I'm going to leave them where they are and possibly dial the leds back a bit. Hopefully I'll have a full data log by the end of the weekend.

So Glad I went with the 420 too. It's nice to be able to measure and log data my macbook all in one easy step.

 

[ChrisNH]

I just bought the SQ420 as well and I'm with you. I don't even have all my lights up(no leds running in my aauatic life hybrid at the moment) because I'm building a new canopy and addressing cable management and it's higher than I expected.

I wonder if they improved the ballast? Here is a relatively crappy Image I did on the PAR I am seeing

It dropped about 25+ all around when I raised the fixture an inch and swapped out an AB+ for a Purple+ to compensate for the straight up 450 blue of the ReefLED50.

The red is T-5 only, the orange is my combined with my ReefLED50 at 60/20 Blue/White.

Maybe all the white rock is having an impact? It will be interesting to see how it is when the rock colors up.